- AI War 2 has left early access! - 22 October 2019
Chris here! By any sane metric I can think of, AI War 2 shouldn't exist. And yet it's more than I ever imagined it could be. When we first set out to make this game three years ago, it was far less ambitious. Even that was going to be really hard. Somehow, in the process of falling down the stairs over and over again during this period, we wound up with a game that seems to be superior to the original. This game shouldn't exist, but it does, and I'm both proud and stunned. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F32938991%2Fed51420dc00461d199a437e6ece56bb118a6eb64.jpg The Secret? Community The intro to this post runs the risk of sounding like I'm tooting my own horn, but it's not actually about me. I'm not capable of making -- even just designing -- this game on my own. I don't think anyone is, really. The fact that this game exists isn't a testament to me having…
- After Two Long Years, AI War 2 Hits Early Access! - 18 October 2018
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F32938991%2Fc6c568d45e0ac9b20ce2930db75c67179ce89f29.jpg It's been quite a saga, if you've followed along all this time. All that extra time paid off! At this point we have what fans have nearly-universally hailed as a worthy successor to the original classic. We still have plenty more to do prior to 1.0 in Q2 of 2019, but the game is ready to play now and we hope you'll come enjoy it and give us further feedback. Pick up the game now for 10% off! New To AI War? The original AI War is widely considered one of the top strategy games of all time, with a central mechanic that no other title has replicated. Humanity has already lost the war, and now you command the last remnants in a desperate campaign to take back the galaxy. More than most strategy games, your actions have consequences: taking every minor outpost you see is a…
- Studio head explains why In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor was pulled from Steam after three days - 12 September 2016
Although received well critically, roguelike bullet hell Starward Rogue was a financial flop when it launched in January, which in turn forced mass layoffs at developer Arcen Games. Its next project In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor was released last month, however poor sales saw it pulled from sale after just three days on Steam . From the outside looking in, this seemed somewhat drastic, however studio head Chris Park has opened up about why the decision to bow out sooner rather than later was made. Nuking development of a game we'd already released (even in EA form) is never something I'd considered, says Park in an interview with Gamasutra . This option had not remotely entered my mind prior to about an hour before deciding to do it. I figured that the worst case with this game would be to struggle along for a month, maybe two, spend about about $40k doing so, and then leave peop…
- Starward Rogue devs pull latest game from Steam after just three days - 30 August 2016
Back in January, strategy specialists Arcen Games announced its then newest game the roguelike bullet hell Starward Rogue had been received well critically, but had flopped financially. This in turn forced mass layoffs at the studio, its founder and CEO Chris Park wrote in a blog post , therefore much rested on the shoulders of its latest game In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor. After just three days on sale via Steam s Early Access programme, it s been pulled, refunds have been offered, and will now be given away free-of-charge. I'm going to give all the customers of In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor a full refund and let them keep the game, then take the game off sale, explained Park in an update post on Saturday just three days after the game s Wednesday launch. The game is selling extremely poorly, even below what happened with Starward Rogue. Park then explored the reasons why…
- In Case Of Emergency, Release Raptor Pulled From Sale - 30 August 2016
Arcen Games are primarily known for making interesting (and ugly) strategy games, but last Wednesday, August 24th, the small team released 3D dino-vs.-robots action game In Case Of Emergency, Release Raptor into early access. Then on Saturday, August 27th, they announced they were unreleasing it . Now as of today the game is no longer on sale and refunds are available for those who already purchased it through Steam. …
- Release Raptor is now free, and freely refund-available. - 30 August 2016
Okay, wow. It's been a busy couple of days figuring some things out. Thanks for your patience during this time. Things are slightly different than I had expected, but the current setup should let people get the exact result they want. You will need to request the refund yourself, though, which is different from what I originally said -- I do apologize about that, but see below for the skinny on why that is. Quick History First up we had the announcement that In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor was being pulled from Early Access and everyone would be refunded. To clarify some points, I explained further why it was not crazy for us to pull it so early. Then we had a snafu based on the fact that I did this late on a Friday, so the game was able to remain up and available for several days. Suddenly a bunch of people wanted the game, either for free (aka paying for it and then getting a ref…
- Release Raptor is now free, and freely refund-available. - 30 August 2016
Okay, wow. It's been a busy couple of days figuring some things out. Thanks for your patience during this time. Things are slightly different than I had expected, but the current setup should let people get the exact result they want. You will need to request the refund yourself, though, which is different from what I originally said -- I do apologize about that, but see below for the skinny on why that is. Quick History First up we had the announcement that In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor was being pulled from Early Access and everyone would be refunded. To clarify some points, I explained further why it was not crazy for us to pull it so early. Then we had a snafu based on the fact that I did this late on a Friday, so the game was able to remain up and available for several days. Suddenly a bunch of people wanted the game, either for free (aka paying for it and then getting a ref…
- Time for some straight talk: Release Raptor is being pulled and refunded. - 27 August 2016
First up: as promised, Alpha 16 is now out. This includes fixes, improved and extended AI, a new robot, and a minimap. In A Nutshell, What's Up? I'm going to give all the customers of In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor a full refund and let them keep the game, then take the game off sale. The game is selling extremely poorly, even below what happened with Starward Rogue. Isn't Part Of Early Access "Don't Make A Game You Rely On EA Sales For?" Yes, this is very true. However, I stated upfront that our reason for doing EA with this game was partly as a market survey of sorts. I felt like that would be a way of determining how big this game could get. With Starward Rogue, and indeed some of our other past commercial failures, we put in everything and the kitchen sink and then there wasn't a market there. I never expected that one option even on the table with this one would be "actually…
- Time for some straight talk: Release Raptor is being pulled and refunded. - 27 August 2016
First up: as promised, Alpha 16 is now out. This includes fixes, improved and extended AI, a new robot, and a minimap. In A Nutshell, What's Up? I'm going to give all the customers of In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor a full refund and let them keep the game, then take the game off sale. The game is selling extremely poorly, even below what happened with Starward Rogue. Isn't Part Of Early Access "Don't Make A Game You Rely On EA Sales For?" Yes, this is very true. However, I stated upfront that our reason for doing EA with this game was partly as a market survey of sorts. I felt like that would be a way of determining how big this game could get. With Starward Rogue, and indeed some of our other past commercial failures, we put in everything and the kitchen sink and then there wasn't a market there. I never expected that one option even on the table with this one would be "actually…
- Robosaur: In Case Of Emergency Release Raptor - 26 August 2016
In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor has been released, which means there must be some kind of emergency. Perhaps the title of the game is a commentary on the situation of creators Arcen, who have been making inventive, weird strategy games for years, and found themselves in financial troubles earlier this year . Upsetting news, because not only were Arcen’s games great, their longevity as a company seemed like evidence that such an unusual portfolio could sustain a studio. Raptor may or may not be the solution. It’s in Early Access now and it looks as odd as the title suggests. …
- Alpha 15 out for In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor! - 26 August 2016
Here are the release notes! Okay, so first of all I want to apologize for not having the minimap in here or any new robots, which were things I'd said I was going to do today. We do have some new rooms for you, though, and some various tweaks and fixes to a number of other rooms. The bulk of today's coding time was instead spent on refining the controls for the raptor and giving you some more options on tuning things there. This was probably the largest complaint about the content that is actually in the game at the moment. Some folks had some really good points about specific issues on reddit and the Steam forums, so I decided to switch gears and focus on those elements today rather than the minimap et al. Those will be tomorrow instead! There are also some bugfixes in here, and some updates to add new goodies into the level editor. You can use those if you like (the level editor is pa…
- Alpha 15 out for In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor! - 26 August 2016
Here are the release notes! Okay, so first of all I want to apologize for not having the minimap in here or any new robots, which were things I'd said I was going to do today. We do have some new rooms for you, though, and some various tweaks and fixes to a number of other rooms. The bulk of today's coding time was instead spent on refining the controls for the raptor and giving you some more options on tuning things there. This was probably the largest complaint about the content that is actually in the game at the moment. Some folks had some really good points about specific issues on reddit and the Steam forums, so I decided to switch gears and focus on those elements today rather than the minimap et al. Those will be tomorrow instead! There are also some bugfixes in here, and some updates to add new goodies into the level editor. You can use those if you like (the level editor is pa…
- In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor... well, released (Early Access). - 24 August 2016
https://youtu.be/2l4XISfQFbU So... many... puns possible. I look forward to seeing what the press come up with (as long as it's not along the lines of No Man Buy, heh). At any rate, today has been really hectic and I had to push the release back by one hour so that I could finish getting the video and screenshots up and everything. And that was even with Cinth doing basically everyone on the screenshots. I really want to give a huge thanks to everyone who has been such a big help on this game: Blue, Keith, Cinth, Craig, Pablo, and Misery in particular. But there have been so many other people as well, including in particular garpu and jerith, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some folks, for which I apologize. And that's not even mentioning the recent raft of testers, who are all thanked on the release notes page. All righty. Speaking of release notes, I'm calling this first build for EA "Alp…
- In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor... well, released (Early Access). - 24 August 2016
https://youtu.be/2l4XISfQFbU So... many... puns possible. I look forward to seeing what the press come up with (as long as it's not along the lines of No Man Buy, heh). At any rate, today has been really hectic and I had to push the release back by one hour so that I could finish getting the video and screenshots up and everything. And that was even with Cinth doing basically everyone on the screenshots. I really want to give a huge thanks to everyone who has been such a big help on this game: Blue, Keith, Cinth, Craig, Pablo, and Misery in particular. But there have been so many other people as well, including in particular garpu and jerith, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some folks, for which I apologize. And that's not even mentioning the recent raft of testers, who are all thanked on the release notes page. All righty. Speaking of release notes, I'm calling this first build for EA "Alp…
- Pre-EA Demo 13 Out Now; EA Starts Tomorrow; Plus a Let’s Play! - 24 August 2016
Release Raptor Pre-EA Demo 13 is now out for testers! Demo 12 came out earlier today, so we've been busy. Tomorrow is our release into Early Access, and while we haven't been able to do everything I had hoped by this point, we have done a lot of things that I hadn't expected to get to, so I guess it balances out. I'm really proud of the current state of the game, and it's going to grow rapidly over the next days -- not to mention weeks. The performance of the procedurally generated levels is just on a whole other level compared to even earlier today, and I'm very excited about that. Visually I think it looks better, too, and that's only going to get better as I get more IES-based light cookies in there. Right now there are still some cases where we can get some ugly light bleed through walls thanks to changes made today, but that's relatively minor and something that we'll fix as we fin…
- Pre-EA Demo 13 Out Now; EA Starts Tomorrow; Plus a Let’s Play! - 24 August 2016
Release Raptor Pre-EA Demo 13 is now out for testers! Demo 12 came out earlier today, so we've been busy. Tomorrow is our release into Early Access, and while we haven't been able to do everything I had hoped by this point, we have done a lot of things that I hadn't expected to get to, so I guess it balances out. I'm really proud of the current state of the game, and it's going to grow rapidly over the next days -- not to mention weeks. The performance of the procedurally generated levels is just on a whole other level compared to even earlier today, and I'm very excited about that. Visually I think it looks better, too, and that's only going to get better as I get more IES-based light cookies in there. Right now there are still some cases where we can get some ugly light bleed through walls thanks to changes made today, but that's relatively minor and something that we'll fix as we fin…
- Quick note: Pre-EA Demo 12 out. - 23 August 2016
Here are the release notes. More coming tonight. Thanks to all the testers who are helping us with this! :)
- Quick note: Pre-EA Demo 12 out. - 23 August 2016
Here are the release notes. More coming tonight. Thanks to all the testers who are helping us with this! :)
- Release Raptor Build For Testers Is Now Out! - 23 August 2016
Just a brief note now, to let folks that we are (roughly) on schedule for once. It took me about 8 hours longer than I expected, but it didn't push back into a further day, so that's good. ;) For folks who are doing testing, there's a guide that I ask you read if you don't mind. If you're curious about the release notes, those are here. Father Brain and procedural generation (procedural assembly?) are now in place, and that's the big news. Then lots of little annoying things were fixed up prior to putting in new testers, based on my own experiences and those of some of our other testers we already had. And with that I'm going to close it out for the night. I'm going to be focusing tomorrow on getting the marketing materials and getting any release-blocker issues taken care of, plus getting a few quality of life things in there. Then on Wednesday if the building isn't on fire then I can…
- Release Raptor Build For Testers Is Now Out! - 23 August 2016
Just a brief note now, to let folks that we are (roughly) on schedule for once. It took me about 8 hours longer than I expected, but it didn't push back into a further day, so that's good. ;) For folks who are doing testing, there's a guide that I ask you read if you don't mind. If you're curious about the release notes, those are here. Father Brain and procedural generation (procedural assembly?) are now in place, and that's the big news. Then lots of little annoying things were fixed up prior to putting in new testers, based on my own experiences and those of some of our other testers we already had. And with that I'm going to close it out for the night. I'm going to be focusing tomorrow on getting the marketing materials and getting any release-blocker issues taken care of, plus getting a few quality of life things in there. Then on Wednesday if the building isn't on fire then I can…
